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CONTROVERSY.

SOME RULES FOR THE STUDY OF IT.

1.STRI

TRIP the book of its trappings. Collect the arguments urged by the author, either for his own scheme, or against yours. Arrange them methodically; ftate them briefly, clearly, and fairly.

II. Mark diligently, and note down conceffions made unawares in different parts of the work, which weaken or deftroy the arguments on the other fide.

III. Discover his drift and defign; to what fect he belongs; who are his friends; who applaud him; and who are applauded by him whence he fetches his arguments, &c.

IV. Throw out what is nothing to the purpose, and fix upon the point on which the difpute turns. Find out the jugulum caufæ, where one good stroke will do more than many pages of lax argumentation. A controvertift fhould be trained as the Arabians. train a falcon, to faften upon the throat of the gazell, and there ftick till the creature drops, See Goldfmith III. 85.

V. Examine whether the opinion contended for be not clogged with more difficulties, and liable to more objections, than the opinion oppofed.

VI. In writing controvery, go as far as you can with your an tagonist; join with, and commend what is right in him. He that would do good by what he says, muft oppose and contradi& as little as poffible; muft make all allowances, and take things in the best light. He must avoid all reproachful language, all that is farcaftical or biting. This never did good from the pulpit or the prefs. The fofteft words make the deepest impreffion.

VOLTAIRE.

2 Cor. ii. 11. We are not ignorant of his devices:

I. VOLTAIRE [coffs at religion, from the abufes and corruptions of it among the Heathens. It should be fhewn, by a true state of the case, how things were from the beginning, that it may be feen which was the original, and which the copy; how it happened that there was fuch a fimilitude between the true and the false; a fimilitude extending to all the nations of the earth; by which it is demonftrated, that as there was once one original language, of which all other languages were dialectical, fo one and the fame religion was once univerfal to all mankind. The Heathens carried off, what they afterwards corrupted by tradition more early than the written law, Voltaire turns all the errors of the copy to the reproach of the original; gives priority to the copy; and fneers at Jewish and Chriftian inftitutions under the cover of terms belonging to the Heathen. He finds circumcifion among the Egyptians before Abraham; and derives baptism from the Indians, practising religious ablutions in the river Ganges, His object is to be rid of truth under the name of error; and to this all his artifices are directed,

II. With this view, the abufes among the profeffors of Chriftianity, fuch as bitter controversies, wars, perfecutions, maffacres, fuperftitions, and legendary miracles of Rome, are all laid to the fcore of their religion, (though they arofe in fact only from the corruption of it) as if religion produced nothing but bad fruits. If truth is difgraced by vice and hypocrify, as it ever was and will be, he reports it to be in itself good for nothing. Falfe logic confounds things; true logic diftinguishes properly: the former is the logic of the difhoneft; the latter of the wife and learned,

III. Works done at the command of God, are confidered as done without his command, and then exclaimed against as fevere and cruel. The executioner is guilty of no crime, when felons

are lawfully condemned by their judge: much lefs when the fentence is from the Judge of all the earth. Earthquakes and peftilences flay indifcriminately, men, women, and children: but who accufes God of injustice on that account? Ali the mistakes and stretches of authority are magnified and fwelled out with all his rhetoric, to make authority itself odious, [or transfer it by degrees to the hands of his friends; and all the world now fees how they ufe it.] What a strange appearance things will take, when we tell fome circumftances of a story, and conceal the reft! If we tell of David's fin, as Voltaire delights to do, and fupprefs the fentence and the punishment paffed upon it: for thus the Bible, which forbids murder and adultery, is made to encourage them.

IV. He ridicules the customs and manners of old times, because they do not agree with thofe of the present age. The fame faults may be found with Homer, whose wisdom is yet very justly admired. Emblematical actions of the prophets, without their fense and meaning, may be made to appear strange and unreasonable; but are of great force and propriety when the reason is added. Tell the story of Jonah and the whale, independent of all other things; or throw it into the heap, among the wonders of Zoroafter and Lomonocodom, and it will be rejected, together with them. But when it is confidered that our Savour himself confirmed the truth of it, and made his ufe of it; that life, death, the resurrection, and the eternal falvation of mankind, are the most interefting fubjects we know of, and merit every poffible wonder of nature to explain to us the nature of them, the cafe is altered. What would be incredible, without the fequel of Chrift's refurrection added to it, and confidered with it, becomes juft and reasonable: and thus every fair critic will confider it,

V. He collects induftriously all the flips, blunders, and abfurdities of commentators and defenders, and fo'endeavours to depreciate their labours, and render them contemptible, and religion through them while all the excellent things a man hath said are. overlooked, because he hath faid fome things that are weak,

VI. Difference of opinion, divifions, &c. do not prove that there is no fuch thing as truth; but rather that fome men do not rightly understand it, and that others do not like it. When a man hates the wifdom of the Scripture, we hold it impoffible

that he can understand it. Truth will never enter, where there is not the love of truth. 2 Theff. ii. 10. "They received not the "love of the truth, that they might be faved." Rom. iii. 3. "What if fome did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?"

VII. The ftiff-neckednefs of the Jews is used as a handle against their law. The reafon fhould be given why God chose such a people why he gave them fuch a law. They are cenfured for their hatred of other nations: but they were taught to hate and avoid their idolatry; and with idolaters that hatred was unpardonable, He is always railing at the Jews, always vindicating the Heathens: he abfolutely denies it to be poffible, that Trajan, Titus, and Antoninus, each good men, could ever be guilty of perfecution: but when a man's principles obliges him to deny facts, it is a fign he is on very bad ground. The fuppofed ignorance of the Jews has been much aggravated, by men who appear to have been more ignorant than they. A true and fair account of them fhould be given.

VIII. To answer what is faid against mysteries, the true nature of a mystery should be fhewn. So far as myfteries fignify doctrines above the reafon of man, they are unavoidable, if God is pleafed to tell us any thing about himself, and the things of an invifible world. So far as myfteries fignify parables, where truth is both hidden and explained (hidden from fome, and explained to others) under the veil of material things, they are vehicles of infiruction worthy of all admiration.

IX. Ridicule, and scorning, and reading with a view to fneer, are symptoms of a very bad difpofition. Prov, xiv. 6. “ A "fcorner feeketh wifdom and findeth it not," All fcorn is from contempt; all contempt is from pride; and pride prevents improvement; fo the fcorner findeth no wifdom: the proud mind is fo full of itself, that there is no room for any thing else. He that hateth another, is never fo well pleased as when he can make him and his actions appear ridiculous: this is the never-failing effect of hatred and malice: and however incredible it may found, we are certain it is a poffible thing for man to hate God; to hate his ways and his word; and in that cafe he will proceed as aforefaid. "In Rom. i. 31. the Heathens are faid to have been eos vytis,

haters of God:" and ver. 25. to have "changed the truth of "God into a lye:" and Pfal. lxxxi. 15. fpeaks of the "haters "of the Lord." If there be any fuch perfons now, as there undoubtedly have been formerly, Mr. Voltaire might be one of them; and all good men who read his bitter sarcasms against the people of God, the church of God, the providence of God, the word of God, and in fhort of every thing that belongs to him, may be left to judge for themfelves. Every truth, however high and facred, may be reprefented under fome low and ridiculous idea; but this is no test,

X. When an author writes to the paffions of mankind, instead of addreffing himself to their reason, weak proofs will have great weight: the work may be fometimes done without any proofs: he wants none, who follows the worse while he fees the better; a weakness to which all men are subject, when passion has the dominion over them. Would a man ufe the meretricious arts of telling tales and novels, to inflame and corrupt, if he could use reafon to convince? Why does he act thus, but because he is appealing to that corrupt judge, which every man carries about in his own breast; who is fo eafily cheated and bribed to favour the adverse party?

XI. The foundation of the New Teftament being laid in the Old Teftament, it is impoffible to vilify the Old without ftriking at the New. Chrift and his Apoftles vouch for the Old Teftament as the word of God: they appeal to it and build upon it. When therefore we fee men at this work, we may be affured their design is to overturn Christianity.

XII. The objects of infidels and unfaithful critics against the infpiration of the language of the Scripture, fhould be obviatedSee what Middleton and Warburton have thrown out.-The Scripture is not offered to us as the fenfe or fentiment of God, but as the word of God; communicated to us through perfons, 2 Pet. iv. 21. "who fpake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." It is not only against the exprefs declarations of the Scripture, but it is false philofophy to fuppofe that an infpired man speaks his own words. Luke xxi. 15. "I will give you a mouth and wisdom." That the divine fpirit does actually inspire words, is demon

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